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Today's reading was edited and adapted from

Stepping Stones to Success by Horace D. Hitchcock, published in 1916.

Imagination rules the world, said Napoleon, and it is true that this quality of mind has been a notable factor in the success of all great men and women.

Each one of us possesses the quality in some degree, and it should be cultivated.

A common understanding of imagination implies its relation to something fanciful, unreal, impossible, as in the case of the imagination of a novelist.

But all imagination is based on actualities.

Exaggerated imaginations often produce improbabilities, but they are never wholly lacking

impossibilities. The faculty of imagination should not be considered as a part of the mental

equipment needed only by artists, musicians, poets, and writers.

It is utilized in everyday life, in all fields of endeavor.

It often forms the root of happiness and prosperity for many who realize its possibilities.

Great happiness comes often through a well-developed imagination.

Through it we can overlook the commonplace and color the dull uninteresting things of life

into things of beauty and delight. It then becomes a great power for contentment and joy, and who is there

who is not always seeking contentment. Imagination, properly cultivated, is a power in the

attainment of prosperity. It makes success out of hopeless failures. It feeds the inspiration,

...